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Holden's Innocence

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Amid the activities of normal day society, the collisions and situations conferred has fabricated the personalities and thought process of each individual human being, and thus the encounters that arbitrarily shaped today’s society and with that represents the physical embodiment of the discrete people. How the effects entwined with everyday lives can be very shocking to even the most adventurous or exploration of people. Holden’s story is nowhere near the exception of these set base of rules of environments and drastic situations changing him as a character. Take past occurrences that helped contrive Holden as a person as he is now, “[I had] old Allie’s baseball mitt. I happened to have it with me, in my suitcase, so I got it out …show more content…

Holden decides to use the baseball glove of his deceased brother Allie to write a composition for Stradlater, and although Holden does point out he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, the statement about him not only being unable to think about any other topic, but revealing his interest and liking into the contemplation of Allie’s poems and of his late brother himself, shows his immense care he once had and now has for the brother he lost. Throughout the book that event changed him severely, as it created the sense he needs to be a “Catcher in the rye”, or preserving the innocence of not only himself, but also of the children, who have yet to experience the corruption and evil transferred by the adult world. These events help shape this similar tone, as it represents a darker and intuitive thinking in Holden’s character arc, and when this can be represented through a past event, it helps present the commotion and inconvenience of affairs as something that can be either only a minor event that can be brushed off, or as something that changes entire life’s. How death can drastically change someone’s views is a phenomenon that eventually everyone is going to endure at one point, and the effects on the psyche can be predominant in any

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Holden, the protagonist of the Catcher in the Rye often makes decisions under the influence of his problematic emotions and caught himself into many rough and self-harming situations. In the first place, Holden made self-harming decisions under the emotion of anger and sadness when his brother passed away "I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it (21). " Holden is making idiotic decisions under the influence of anger and sadness and caused himself a lifelong injury. Similarly, later in the Catcher in the Rye Holden again makes another decision under his emotion of jealousy about Stradlater 's date with Jane. Holden relentlessly insulted Stradlater, driving him crazy until

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Arrested development works in more than one fashion for Holden Caulfield, as not only does he desperately cling to the past, but his five stages of grief are similarly slowly processed—namely denial. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye follows Holden as he adapts to life alone in the city, and is forced to deal with the consequences of living in the real world. After projecting his issues onto others throughout the novel, only by accepting his own shortcomings does Holden finally start taking steps towards changing his life for the better. Holden’s little brother, Allie, passed away some years before the story takes place, and is one of the biggest factors in his refusal to let go of the past.

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Holden Caulfield experiences flashbacks to the traumatic events that have occurred in his life. Holden is constantly reminded of his younger brother Allie who passed away when he was 11 years old. “So what I did, I wrote about… did, and he had very red hair,” (Salinger 38). The reader can see that Holden is constantly thinking of Allie, and that Allie was one of the people in Holden’s life that made him happy. Holden’s ability to remember the vivid details of Allie and his life prove that these traumatic events, occurring upon those who brought him joy, will always be with him.

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As the book starts Holden describes his childhood and how he has been kicked out of several school and once more again from his currently school, giving a sense of irresponsibility and no care in the world. Holden later on mentioned slowly the loss of his brother due to leukemia and how he reacted outrageously by breaking the windows of his garage home. As a reader one would view that behavior as abnormal, but Peter Shaw descried it as a normal behavior for a fictional character in the 1950s and by mentioning that Holden, “is presenting in a somewhat different manner than are the sentimentalized young people in other novels if his period” (par. 3), admitting that Holden was somewhat of an outcast of a character even for its time he is still considered normal. Shaw also challenged the reader’s view of Holden by emphasizing that Holden is not a real person, but a fiction character developed in the 1950s and in fact a mad psychological character is normal and made the reading rather more interesting and acceptable during that time. As readers someone may come across as understanding Holden’s behavior due to a loss and everyone mourns differently and as Shaw said, “ the one period of life in which abnormal behavior is common rather than exceptional” (par.

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In this quote, Holden describes his younger brother Allie 's baseball mitt. The quote is significant to the novel because it provides context on Holden 's past and the reason for his behavior and apathy towards life. In the quote, Holden addresses Allie for the first time while discussing the details of his baseball mitt. Holden describes his brother 's baseball mitt as having "poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere",the quote shows the similarities they once had and their shared passion for reading and literature. Allie 's baseball mitt serves as a symbol of Holden 's love for his brother as well as the sorrow that he has experienced since his passing.

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Holden Caulfield’s early loss of innocence causes him to fiercely guard the innocence of others, resulting in pain for him when he realizes that his attempts are futile. Holden’s negative experiences with the adults in his life lead to his valuing the idea of innocence. Despite his bad role models, Holden clings to the concept that integrity is the most important quality in a person. While reflecting on one of his old boarding schools, he expresses his dislike for its “phony” headmaster, Mr. Haas. He complains, “[O]ld Haas went around shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to school.

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In the paradoxical personality of Holden we discover something much deeper. As Holden makes himself out to be tougher than what he actually is, Salinger introduces stubbornness. Holden’s true nature of gentleness and sensitivity offered throughout the book often brings bedlam into his life, though Salinger brings into

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In this excerpt from the beginning of the novel called The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield speaks to his psychologist about his deceased younger brother. Salinger includes this quote from Holden in order to offer the reader some understanding of his actions and attitude throughout the book, and it also enforces the thought that Holden is a character struggling with teen grief, misunderstood by his parents and the peers around him. In this quote, he seems to be lost in thought of the detail of his younger brother's baseball mitt, even remembering the "green ink" (Salinger) that was used on it. Because of this, readers can infer that Holden has spent much time with this mitt and that such an object has a great amount of sentimental value to him because it was a possession of a person that he cared greatly about. However, despite his pain, Holden does not allow himself to process his grief properly; he instead puts up a sort of facade of passiveness towards the death of younger brother.

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904 Words | 4 Pages

During his short time in Manhattan, just the thought of his yellowness and his gloves being stolen at Pencey Prep depresses him to the point where he decides to have more alcoholic drinks after a night in the town. After a night in which Holden didn’t socialize the way he wanted to, he feels so depressed that he wished he died. These instances are important, because it shows that his feelings are unreasonable, and as a result, his depression affects his rational

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1085 Words | 5 Pages

After becoming aware of his brother’s death, he is unable to control his anger which leads his family wanting to psychoanalyze him because “[He] broke all the windows in the garage the night he died,and [he] broke all the goddam window with [his] fist, just for the hell of it”(39). Holden’s action of breaking the glasses signifies the importance of his brother life to him. The way he felt toward his brother can not be portrayed by using literary devices, but i can mention that during every baseball he reads Allie’s poem even after years and he talks with him. The importance of Allie’s role in Holden’s life can be traced to his childhood were he didn’t only carried out a role of a brother for Holden but the closed and most trustworthy person that Holden could possibly ever have. Allie’s death seems like the end of life for Holden, he doesn’t know what to do without

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656 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the book, Holden is struggling to get by. The death of his brother Allie has left him in a tough spot. Holden doesn’t exactly know how to deal with this. The different stages of grief are represented through Holden. Holden shows denial and anger when he flashbacks to one of his memories after his brother’s death.

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1418 Words | 6 Pages

This describes Holden to-a-t, because of his alienation problem, his conflict with “phoniness” and his struggle of growing up and leaving his small problems behind him. Throughout the novel,

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801 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the novel, Holden’s ideal state of isolation and existentialism led him to battle against society and how society fed him ideas of expectancy. The phonies in his

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779 Words | 4 Pages

The Connotation Of Allie’s mitt To The Catcher In The Rye Salinger uses the symbol of Allie's mitt to express the theme of innocence as demonstrated in a major symbol, big factor in Catcher in The Rye, and overall connection to the theme of the book. First of all, Allies mitt's represents pure innocence and no other symbol in the book represents innocence as good as the mitt does. The mit represents Allies life to us as a innocent and young life. “He got leukemia and died when we we’re up in Maine, on July 18, 1946.”

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1230 Words | 5 Pages

Holden’s unusual fantasy metaphorically displays this desire to save children’s innocence on his quest, and literally displays his obsession with death and preventing it, as being the catcher in the rye would accomplish both goals. F. Literary Critics also note that Holden’s catcher in the rye job is a dream of his that he pretends to be a reality to hide the fact that he secretly knows that he is unable to save the innocence of all children. G. Authors James E. Miller jr, and Arthur Heiserman explicitly state that, “Holden delights in circles – a comforting bounded figure which yet connotes hopelessness” (Miller, Heiserman 496). H. The “comforting bounded figure” is Holden’s catcher fantasy that he literally uses to comfort himself against the reality he refuses to believe because it “connotes hopelessness” and he is still too innocent and naïve to accept that. I. Holden possesses this dream as a weak attempt to save the innocence of children and to avoid a hopeless reality of defeat he has yet to accept.

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